Getting dirty

This weekend was full of gardening and other yard work.  I dug up the shrubs in the bed against the garage and set out to prep the bed for some of the native plants I bought last weekend.  I'm determined to get rid of that red pumice, so what did I do?  I dug out all of the pumice from the bed against the garage and added it to the bed against the back of the house!  I will get rid of it eventually...

I got the plants in the ground and officially started my adventure in outdoor gardening!  I've had houseplants forever and never enjoyed gardening - ask my mom.  But there is a great satisfaction when it's your own.  I felt great satisfaction when I got the first plants in the ground. 

Chris got the bird feeder post in the ground - it's replacing the shepard's hook we were using.  This way, we can have feeders on all sides if we want to.  When we went out to more hooks, we also stopped by the bird store to get an oriole feeder.  We're hoping to attract some - Chris has gotten some amazing photos of the orioles at my parents' and he'd love to get some here too.  We're going to put out the hummingbird feeder soon too.  All sorts of activity here!

While I had my camera out, I took some pictures around the house to document what everything looks like this time of year:

It feels so good to lay in the sun!

Latest addition

While I was browsing through Craigslist recently, I found a sideboard for the dining room.  I had been thinking about getting something to replace the speakers and chairs, and I finally found it:

Today I'm going with Gina to a plant sale at the fairgrounds.  I'm hoping to get some more succulents and some native plants to place the stuff in the bed against the garage.  I decided to only shop for plants to go in that bed, because otherwise I would be buying way too much stuff and I decided I'll tackle that bed first, and when life quiets down a bit, I'll start redoing the bed against the house.  Exciting!

Work has been horrible and I unfortunately don't see it easing up anytime soon.  I was close to having a breakdown yesterday, but I managed to keep myself somewhat together. We are scrambling to get the 2011 budget up for users and it's a major production.  That means I've been putting in a lot of overtime which means I'm cranky.  This is why I've decided to take today completely off, and I'll do work stuff tomorrow.  I have to remind myself often to take deep breaths - it actually helps for about 10 seconds :)

Lilacs in full bloom

I love our backyard:

I finished doing the spring cleanup this weekend and I got inspired to start planning out what future gardening I want to do.  I am determined to dig up all the pumice from the beds and to start bringing some more color into the plant selection.  Right now it's the lilac in back, and the bleeding hearts and potentially edible rhubarb in front.  By the way, does anyone know how to determine if my rhubarb plant is edible?  I'm going to bring it into a nursery soon, but I was wondering if any of you knew off the top of your head.

I'm thinking about trying to stick with native plants for the most part and stealing a whole bunch of flowers when we go up to my parents over Memorial Day weekend.

My centerpieces are doing well - for those who don't know, I'm going to spoil the surprise because I'm excited that they're still alive: I'm going to have succulents.  They are growing which is a great sign :)

Spring is exciting!

Banjo's busy weekend

It turns out Banjo's been chasing more than squirrels, chipmunks and rabbits out of our yard:

We now have to be on the lookout for bouncy balls!  What's next?!?

Banjo's anniversary

One year ago yesterday, Banjo came to live with us.  Because I didn't care enough, Banjo had to wait until today to get a special treat (just kidding - it was because I hadn't made time to go to the grocery store).  Banjo got a yummy can of wet dog food, a far cry from the dry crap he usually gets.  He was trembling with excitement as I prepared his special meal, and scarfed it down extremely quickly.  Licking his lips with satisfaction, he reflected on our year together. 

It certainly was a rocky start - I chose the worst possible week to get him because both Chris and Kim were gone a lot.  Banjo, given his new and noisy environment, had a very difficult time adjusting.  I was actually debating whether or not to take him back to his foster family.  And now, I can't imagine not having him.  We've done various training programs with him and we've had great results.  He's still bad crazy sometimes, but he's the third member of our family :) 

We had a major test for him on Sunday.  Chris's parents brought up all three of their dogs, the largest one is terrified of Banjo.  Banjo growled a few times, but didn't attack any one despite all of the excitement.  I think it was great that we were able to hang outside the entire morning. 

With the great weather, Banjo and I started our yard cleanup.  I've gotten most of the backyard done.  A lot of work needs to be done in the front of the house.  I didn't clean up any of the beds in the front yard in the fall, thinking the leaves would further protect all the plants during the winter.  Given the way all the plants are coming back up, I think it was likely a good choice, but more experienced gardeners may tell me the plants would have done just as well without it.

Spring really is exciting!

Major accomplishment

I did what I said I was going to: get the invitations in the mail on Monday.  Today is Monday and those invitations are in the mail.  Phew! 

I had a panic attack last Monday night and made a trip to Michaels at 7:30pm (making back just in time for Castle).  I got half of the stuff I needed to make invitations.  I continued on with the panic attack the following night with a trip to Target for the remainder of supplies.  I got some pimples on my face from all the stressing out about it (which drew even more attention to my large forehead - but I was too busy freaking out to notice).  Then I cut and printed, cut and printed, designed and printed, and cut and cut and cut...(it keeps going). 

I spent the majority of this weekend putting everything together, and it took me up until 10:30pm last night to get everything done, but I did it and it was a wonderful feeling.  It was also a major sense of accomplishment for me to design everything and put everything together by my goal date (that's one of the only things I've done on time and it felt damn good). 

Look for the invitations in the mail.  I realized after putting them in the mailbox a block away that I maybe should have had each weighted to make sure one stamp would do it...so my apologies if you end up having to pay a little bit or if the invites are delayed because they get sent back to me (at least it will give you plenty of laughs).

FYI - I've become what I didn't want to be: the bride that talks about her wedding all the time.  The problem is that's basically all I'm doing!

Holy crap - our wedding day is about three months away!

I finally got my butt in gear and really started organizing my thoughts about our wedding.  I needed some pressure before I finally got into "Let's get this planned" mode, but now that I'm here, I'm pretty excited!  I love lists (because I love the satisfied feeling I get when I cross stuff off) and I started lists of everything Chris and I need to do as soon as possible, as well as stuff that can be hammered out a little later.  I feel so much better now that all the thoughts swimming around in my head are now down on paper.  It helps me organize and feel a little bit more in control. 

I took my wedding ring into the jeweler last week for repairs - my mom gave me my Great Great Aunt's ring to use as my wedding ring and I couldn't be more excited about it!  Plus I finally took my dress in to get dry cleaned before I take it to the tailor on Tuesday (I figured she'd probably appreciate working with a clean dress - hee hee). 

Our next big decisions: specific time for the wedding and catering.  I'm also finally starting to really work on decorations.  I'm going to look at fabric next week for tablecloths and Chris and I are going to make a stop on the way down to his parents' to look at plants tomorrow.  I also found out about a big sale at the U in late April for the kinds of plants I'm looking for.  Let's see if I can take off some time from work to actually go!

One thing I really want to have for our wedding is something I've made for myself.  I started working on a shawl last week - I fell in love with the pattern the minute I saw it.  I hope I can get it done before the wedding! 

This post was much more positive than my last one - I got my portion of the crappy project done since then and finished my portion of the other project done.  Now I'm making great progress in rebuilding our budget applications.  I really wish I could have taken your advice Jamie...